WOW! A Post!

Happy December everyone! I've been away for quite some time, and I really do not know if I will be able to get right back into the swing of things here, but I will most definitely try!

This post is directly in response to a comment I received on my blog just yesterday.

Nice site!
I am for the flat tax, sales tax based is fine with me.

The idea of a rebate check bothers me, that seems to beg for trouble. Why not be able to exempt 'necessary items' instead?

or

If a poor person must be exempted (which is not a flat tax), issue them a special credit like card.
This card could allow a reduced or zero tax rate as deemed fit.
The totals spent on such a card could be limited to their income to protect from abuse.

Sat Dec 02, 09:40:16 PM EST

This put me in a mood to write, and gave me a distraction from cleaning my room!

This post was from anonymous... So I do not have anyone directly to address. I will instead address this to all 13 of my readers!


The prebate is an essential part of the FairTax, believe it or not. The FT is not just about making a national sales tax... it is about getting the government out of our back pockets. It is about making the citizens of this country fiscally free once again.

Under the current system, the government MUST know every dollar you make in order to effectively collect its taxes. It must also take a record of a good amount of the money you spend, so you can get your appropriate tax breaks. This is a flagrant violation of our privacy as individuals.

The FT, however, gets rid of any government digging into your own personal financial affairs. The government no longer needs to know how much money you make, what your income is, what charities you donated to, which investment funds you have put your child's future college tuition into... Your money is your money. You spend it where you wish, and the government never needs to know in order to collect its funds.

It only needs the sales numbers from each business that is registered as a business under the federal government. Registering as a business isn't even required by law. You only register as a business if you want to get the business to business tax-free purchases if the item is for future resale. This measure prevents a VAT tax situation.

Now, on to the concept of tax-exempt "necessary items." First, I have seen first-hand in Florida how a sales tax with "necessary items" tax exempt breeds complications and loop holes. Every business in the country will be finding one way or another to make its newest product a "necessary item," so that it too can be tax free. This will breed a whole new type of tax-lawyer who will be even worse than the tax-lawyers we currently have confusing our system to no end.

Also, it is a fact that those with more disposable income spend a higher percentage of the income they spend to live on tax-exempt "necessary items." If that sentence didn't make any sense to you, here is an example:

A millionaire makes dinner and a man at poverty level makes dinner. The poor man does not have time to make himself dinner because he needs to work, so he stops at McDonald's and buys two Double Cheeseburgers, neither of those burgers are tax free. The millionaire has his chef buy all fresh produce and meats and items from scratch to make his meal. He does not need to take the time to prepare a meal, and can work while his cook makes the meal. He can eat it just as if it were a fast food meal. That meal was tax free. They both spend money to survive, one spends more, but the one who spends more gets the food tax free more often than the one who spends less.

In other words, making specific items tax-free breeds corruption and complication in the tax code, and it does not favor the poor, who it is aimed at helping in the first place!


About the "credit card" for the poor that is limited to their income level, the government would need to know who is poor and who is not to hand this out. The FT has no system of reporting income because income level does not apply to taxes any longer.

The prebate creates an auto-adjusting system to ensure that those who spend at poverty level pay an EFFECTIVE tax rate of 0%. Meaning, the net taxes that are collected from the retail purchases that individual makes is zero. If a man at poverty level spends $10000 retail ($9800 is poverty level for a single person, so I am rounding up) in one year, $2300 of those purchases will be sent in to the government as tax dollars from the businesses he chose to frequent. He will, however, receive a check from the government on the first of every month in the amount of $2300/12=$192... Thus, the amount of taxes the government takes in minus the tax revenue it gives out in prebates is zero dollars.

An individual who spends $50000 retail in one year will have $11500 sent in to the government as tax dollars. He will also be receiving the same exact check for the amount of $192. So, his NET taxes collected as a result of his purchases is $9200. His effective tax rate is therefore 9200/50000= 18.4%

Finally, woman who spends $2 million in one year will have $460000 sent in as taxes. She will receive the same check of $192 monthly, and her net taxes collected will be $457700. This will be an effective tax rate of 22.885%

This system does not need any sort of subject panel deciding who gets what money. The system automatically creates a higher tax rate for the person who decides to spend money above the poverty level.



I want to also address an issue I noticed in the comment:

...If a poor person must be exempted (which is not a flat tax)...

The FairTax is not a flat tax. The idea is that an individual chooses the rate at which he/she is taxed by how much he/she decides to spend at the retail level. A flat tax says that every person will pay the same percentage of his/her income. This is not true of the FairTax.

One, under the FairTax, no one actually pays taxes, the businesses send the money in instead.
Two, a flat tax is not generally accepted by the American people and is viewed as regressive because it forces the poor to be taxed on what they need to survive, and some may not be able to afford to survive because of the oppressive tax burden. The compassionate American public views this in a negative light and wishes to raise the tax burden on those who can survive in order to lower the burden on those who cannot.
Three, the FairTax is a "voluntary" tax from the viewpoint of the consumer, that is you and me. We do not have to have a single dollar of what we earn sent in as tax revenue if we do not make any of our purchases at retail stores that make enough money to be considered business by the government.
Please, do not get the two concepts confused... They are very different.


I hope this clears up some issues out there.


Adios amigos!

(Fair)Tax Evasion

This is a letter i received from Karen Walby, Director of Research for AFFT. She is a brilliant woman, and I love reading her responses to questions and concerns.

I plan on making this blog a bit more organized soon. I just need to learn how to create folders and sub-folders in the language this site uses. If anyone knows how, shoot me a line please!

I want to categorize all my blogs and any articles, letters, or comments I find into areas of interest.



Question: Since business purchases are not taxable, how does the FairTax keep
individuals from pretending to have a business so they can buy things tax-free?

Answer: Under the FairTax the entire income tax code is repealed and along with it the various designations of subchapter S corporations or C corporation. There would be no longer be a tax reason to incorporate or not to incorporate.

Under the FairTax, any business can purchase goods & services for business purposes tax free if they meet certain criteria and certain responsibilities which are explained in the paragraphs below.

The FairTax has several features that make it difficult and very risky for persons to have a scam business in order to purchase items tax-free. First, in order for any person to purchase items tax-free for business purposes, the business has to be a registered business and possess a registered business certificate issued by the state sales tax authority. Registered businesses will be expected to file monthly or quarterly sales tax returns with the state if retail sales are made. The registered business certificate will enable the business to purchase tax-free from wholesale vendors, but the wholesale vendor must retain a copy of the registration certificate to justify not having collected tax on the sale. When a business purchases items for business use from a retail vendor, it will have to pay the tax on the purchase and take a credit against the tax due on their monthly sales tax return. If the business has no retail sales it will receive a cash refund. The business must keep invoices/receipts to document what it purchased, the amount of the purchase, and the business purpose.

Also, registered businesses will be subject to the possibility of being audited by the state sales tax authority. During such an audit they will have to produce the invoices for all the "business purchases" that they did not pay sales tax on, and will have to be able to show that they were bona fide business expenses. If they cannot prove this, then they will have to pay the taxes that should have been paid when the items were purchased, plus interest, and penalties. The probability of being audited will be much greater than it is under the current system with its over 140 million tax filers. Under the FairTax, there will be less than 20 million businesses who will be filing sales tax returns and thus subject to the possibility of being audited. Thus the probability of tax cheats getting caught will be much greater than it is today, making tax evasion riskier than it is today. Additionally, while the FairTax has much stronger taxpayer rights than does the current tax system, the FairTax legislation provides for a number of fines and penalties for non-compliance. It also authorizes a mechanism for reporting tax cheats and obtaining a reward. An example would be
1-800–TAX-CHET.

Another potential scam is to have a “fake” family business in order to buy things for family members tax-free. The FairTax has a specific provision to prevent this. Although it does not prohibit businesses from providing taxable property or services as gifts, prizes, rewards or as remuneration for employment; the gift, reward, etc. is considered to be the conversion of property or services from business use to personal use and therefore taxable. Likewise, there is a similar provision to prevent abuse of employee discounts. Under the FairTax, employer-provided employee discounts over 20 percent are taxable. The term “employee discount” means an employer’s offer of taxable property or services for sale to its employees or their families for less than the offer of such taxable property or services to the general public. If the employee discount amount exceeds 20 percent of the price to the general public, then the sale of such taxable property or services by the employer to the employee is considered the conversion of property or services to personal use and subject to tax. The taxable amount is the amount by which the discount exceeds 20 percent of the price to the general public.




Karen Walby

Director of Reasearch, Ph.D.

FairTax.org

Tax Reform Concerns

Today, through a bit of inspiration in reading the posts on the FairTax Groups forum, I have decided to make a chart of concerns about taxation in this country, and then rate the level of that concern for each type of tax reform idea. So, here is the first phase of the chart:

P.S. I cannot figure out why, but the chart wants to be REALLY far down the page. I can't get rid of the extra spaces. If someone who knows programming sees this and knows how to fix it, by all means, reply and tell me how. Otherwise, just scroll down and check it out. Tell me of any concerns you think should be on there and if you agree/disagree with my risk/concern level.

Concern	FairTax	Flat Tax	VAT	Current	VAT w/Prebate
Hurts the Poor	2	7	9	4	3
Evasion	2	6	3	7	3
Revenue Neutral	2	3	2	3	3
Fair	1	3	4	7	3
Transparent	1	2	7	9	7
Price Increase	6	4	7	2	6
Higher than Propsed/Current Tax Rate	3	3	4	6	4
Hurt Business	2	4	3	7.5	2.5
Black Market Causing Less-than-Expected Revenue	2	4	3	7.5	2.5
Fix Social Security & Welfare	3	5	3.5	6.75	3.5

Tell me of any concerns you think should be on there and if you agree/disagree with my risk/concern level.

Its been a while!

Hey everyone, thanks so much for you positive and negative feedback! I enjoy hearing that people appreciate the fact that I have a blog on the FairTax, and I also am happy that there are those of you out there who care enough understanding the issue of the FairTax to debate it with me. Even if your heart is dead-set against it, I am still happy that you would have an intelligent, informed discussion about it, rather than demagogue it to death.

I regret that I have not been able to make a post for so long. I have been SOOOOOOO busy. A project deadline is coming up at work, AND I am moving into a new apartment. I still have no more time than I have had for the past week, but I need to write something here. I am addicted to blogging! I love it! I am glad to be back!


Today I will talk about my experiences on the forum FairTaxGroups.com

My name is the same on that site, and because it take much less of a commitment to make a simple post on the forum than it does to write a whole blog, I have not neglected the forum as much as I have this site. I have made a few posts, and responded to many concerns about the FairTax.

I will be referencing data that is contained on this PDF. It is a rebuttal to a report filed by ITEP from AFFT.
ITEP Rebuttal

Of the various disagreements that arise on the forum, I believe the most common concern is that the FairTax will not raise enough revenue at 23% inclusive tax. They provide a variety of reasons for this claim...

tax evasion...
black markets...
confusion over who pays what...

... But none of them have ever been able to hold water with me. I will address the issue that the FairTax, as written, will be able to raise the necessary revenue to fund our government as it is today, and then I will respond to a few common concerns about why the expected amount may not be the collected amount.


First, in 2003, the Federal Government collected $1.67 trillion in revenue from the income tax, payroll taxes, estate tax, gift taxes, capital gains taxes, etc. This amount is 15.24% of Nominal GDP for that same year, which was $10.961 trillion. The Federal Government collected, through various forms of income taxation, just over 15% of our GDP in 2003. For that same year, consumption (as currently defined, which will be modified once the FT is in place, but it is an overall wash in the total amount) was $9.5 trillion. The tax rate required to raise the same revenue for taxing consumption would be 17.6%. Thus the tax rate would need to be, at least, 17.6% to remain revenue neutral. After adding in the cost of the prebate, the rate of 23% sounds reasonable.

This, of course, is assuming that all of the taxes are collected and that spending continues on its current general trend from one year to the next. Today I will address the issue that, assuming spending stays on its current trend, a large enough portion of the taxes will be collected to fund the government effectively.

The reason why taxes wouldn't be collected would be tax evasion. Under the current system, several hundred billion dollars are evaded in taxes every year. This is because of the complex nature of the tax, and the ability to hide income in off-shore accounts and various other holdings. Under the FT, income is no longer reported, and there is no longer a need for those off-shore accounts. What is reported is the business's sales and business to business expenditures that the business paid tax on. These are reported monthly. The business will report that it had $10,000 in sales this month, and it made $8,000 in taxed business to business transactions, thus it paid $1,840 in taxes. The company owes $2,300 in taxes because of the $10,000 in sales. So, reporting the expenditures and the sales, the total amount of taxes the company owes to the government is $2,300-$1,840=$460.

If, say, this company made it a habit to sell things cheaper without collecting the tax, and not reporting that sale so the government won't have a record of it. This leads to its overall sales numbers declining. Instead of $10,000 in sales and $8,000 in B2B expenditures, it ends up being $8,500 in sales and $8,000 in expenditures. What will happen to this $1,500 that is left? The owner will most likely pocket the money.

Purchasing 800 widgets for $10 each will add up to $8,000. Selling those widgets for a total sales revenue of $8,500 means an average price of $10.63, or a profit of $0.63 each.

If one was to calculate the numbers again, it will become obvious that something is just not right. $8,500 in reported sales is $1,955 in taxes, and $8,000 in expenditures is still $1,840 in tax credit. Thus total taxes owed is $115. This leaves only $385 for other expenses. This business is just barely scraping by with a 4.5% profit margin, but it is still profiting, and no red flags have yet gone up.

The warning will come from outside the company. The red flag will be from the widget manufacturer. This will most likely be a very large factory that sells to more than this small widget retailer, and will be under a large deal of scrutiny, so they will pay their taxes by the book. Only small businesses will be able to possibly think they can slip under the radar. The sales that the widget company reports will go to the government. The number of widgets sold to every customer will be documented to be sure there is no lying about the tax credit. The manufacturer will report that it sold 800 widgets to our aforementioned retailer so the retailer can get its proper credit. The retailer will be selling the products as if it were collecting the tax, but will not be turning it in, so its prices will be higher than the average price calculated when using the total reported revenue and the number of widgets sold. The company will be audited and caught.

If the company decides to report the correct price for the products, but decides to not include certain purchases so he can keep the tax as profit, it will show in the report as the wrong number of widgets sold.

The system, by forcing businesses to report sales to get tax credits, ensures the system will be hard to avoid.


Even if the retailer decides to not charge the tax or remit it, and does not ask for the tax credit, he will then be in the hole, and the tax will be paid anyway.



It is not worth it to a company to try and avoid this tax. The penalties for getting caught are severe, and the ease of getting caught is obvious. Illegal sales that do not give the government the tax will need to be kept to a minimum in order to avoid detection, and this will prevent abuse. Over 80% of all sales in this country are through major companies who would never dare cheat on the taxes like this, and so a small percent of the 20% will be miniscule. Eventually, the tax will be a way of life, and paying it will no longer be considered a burden, but just what happens. The black market idea will simply not happen because there is little incentive and great deal of risk.

My blog's first negative comment!

I am excited! I have my first negative response to my blog!
A kind gentleman/gentlewoman named "Dutch" made a comment on my blog about my post about the momentum of the FairTax movement.

---

Dutch said...
Momentum shouldn't be confused with a group of advocates "drinking their own bathwater"! All money bills originate in the House W&M committee, Revenue subcommittee. Of the 13 members of the subcommittee, only one favors the Fairtax-Rep. Linder. Of the 41 members of the full committee, only three support the Fairtax. And we all know that only 55 of the 435 House members now support HR25. No Democrats have come out in support of HR25. The probability of HR25 being taken up in committee in the next two years is nil. And if the D's take over the House in November, the Fairtax will become a distant memory. Please tell me again where you detect all this momentum?

Thu July 27, 11:32:16 AM EDT

---

I would like to comment on this comment, and this will be my blog post for today.

Your numbers are accurate, but they do not tell the whole story. You can know nothing about the velocity, let alone acceleration, of something if all you have is its position at one given point.

For example, if I were to tell you the Space Shuttle Columbia was at 13°19.717′N 23°27.500′E and 35,759 feet altitude at 14:04:45 on 07/26/05, could you tell me how fast it was moving or whether it was accelerating or decelerating? That data is very precise and you would be able to find the space shuttle fairly easily, however, if that is all you knew, there is no way to ever know what is actually going on with the shuttle.

My point is that you cannot tell if the FairTax movement has momentum (velocity times mass) without looking at its change over time. The FairTax is picking up momentum. The number of supporters among the American people is growing every day, and the word will spread even faster once the Orlando Rally makes the news.

You also say that the FairTax only has 55 supporters out of 435 Representatives. You fail to mention, however, that those that you call "supporters" are those who have completely signed on with the bill. These men and women are co-sponsors, justjuts supporters. The Bill has many more who support the idea but have not yet co-sponsored the bill. The bill has 73 supporters, 55 of whom are co-sponsors, and 295 who are non-committal one way or the other. Even Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga) has requested that her position be changed from Opposes to Will Not Commit.

I foresee the upcoming elections as a catalyst for the FT movement. There are candidates everywhere who are coming up in the major parties as supporters of this movement. They will get quite a few votes, I can guarantee that. If some seats are lost or put in jeopardy by the candidate(s) who support the FairTax, then politicians will wake up.

Another point to make is the data that came out of Georgia last week with their primary votes. In three counties, the FairTax as an idea was included on the ballot in the Republican primary. These are the results of those primaries.

When asked if they supported the FairTax, voters responded as follows:
Gwinnett County:
Total Votes: 35,755
Yes - 31,068 86.9%
No - 4,687 13.1%

Cobb County:
Total votes: 39,458
Yes - 33,598 85.15%
No - 5,860 14.85%

Fayette County:
Total votes: 11,517
Yes - 9,828 85.33%
No - 1,689 14.67%

Those numbers are staggering! I doubt numbers like that would show up if you asked the same group if they supported the War on Terror!


I know that Georgia is a very Republican state in the middle of the Sunbelt, but it is such a strong movement in Georgia because that is where the publicity started with Rep. John Linder, and Neal Boortz, radio personality, who broadcasts from Atlanta. All the FT needs is time. All grassroots movements need time, especially ones that take power from the politicians and their lobbies.

I detect the momentum in the American people Dutch. I detect the momentum among those who hear about the FairTax and are excited about it. They are excited about taxes!

I know there is momentum when I speak to Conservatives and Liberals who are in support of this idea.


I myself got went to a Gay Pride Rally in St. Pete Florida not too long ago, and in a few hours we had collected 300 signatures to the FairTax petition to send to congress. The idea of letting people keep their money and spend it where they want may be a somewhat conservative idea, however, the FairTax ends up being even more progressive, by design, than the current system, and so liberals love it too.

You have made another comment that I will make a post about later tonight.


I will say one thing however, before I go. This is my blog. I am allowed to be a fanatic, an indefatigable optimist, loud, obnoxious, and blunt. You however, need to be polite and courteous, or I will not allow your comments through. You know what I mean. Stick to your issues and your facts and we will get along fine. If I feel uncomfortable with putting something on my blog, I very well may not but it up there. You have not yet said anything that makes me want to keep it off my site, however I don't want it to get to that point.


FairTax Now!

We've got momentum baby!

Just a throwback to one of my favorite artists, Toby Mac, and one of his best songs, Momentum.

Today I am going to write a quick little synnopsis of why I think the FairTax has momentum and actually WILL get passed.

Republicans squaring off in 3rd District

This article walks you through a race for a Republican seat in the third district in Kansas City and the positions the candidates are taking on issues. The FT used to be an issue that only those closest to the movement really cared at all about, and no one ever considered even mentioning it in the same sentence as "running for office." Now, there if a candidate running as a supporter of the movement.

"Ahner supports the FairTax system, which would eliminate the federal income tax and replace it with a sales tax on products and services."

This is a general overview of the extreme basics of the FT, it isn't perfect, but its close enough for a single sentence. My point isn't the article's treatment of the FT, I could go on for days about that. My point is that this is just one more example of how much momentum the FT has gotten.

The FairTax is being used as a platform in one of the two main parties. This is BIG. I am happy!


Also, when you take into account what I wrote about yesterday, that politicians who currently hold office are using just the NAME of the FairTax to move their political agendas forward. That is proof enough for me that the FairTax is scaring politicians and making them act, even if it is to run the other way for some.

Go Gators and go FairTax!

The "Fair Flat Tax"

Oregon Senator Wants to Take On the Burden of Fixing the Tax Code

This is a Washington Post news article printed yesterday. The article talks about the plan of Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR.) for a "Fair Flat Tax" to reform the current tax code. There are so many things wrong with this, not the article, but the plan, that I don't even know where to begin.

To start, I want to talk about the name. I don't want to make the fact that it is a total misnomer the center of my argument, but the fact that it takes the names of the two top tax reform plans and combines them. I believe this is an attempt to pretend at being "moderate." Moderates are viewed as those who look for a medium ground in every conflict. Moderates try to compromise everything. They look for ways to make everyone happy. This seems like such a noble goal, who can speak against peace and general "getting along?" I can... for one... but I am saying that this is an attempt to look good in the public's eyes by acting as though he is a moderate. One look at his voting record, and one would easily recognize he is no moderate. He is simply playing politics to get across his agenda. He believes the American public to be so naive, so ignorant, so gullible, so trusting, and so easily duped that he would dare name his plan in such a way. It is obviously a throwback to the FairTax and the Flat Tax. He is hoping that people will be ill-informed (thanks to our government schools) so that when election time comes, he can say he is in favor of the "Fair Flat Tax," and by throwing those at you like buzz-words and cliches he hopes to win your vote.

Senator Wyden. We are no longer ignorant.

We are no longer stupid.

We are no longer slaves to the main-stream media.

We are our own media. We do our own research. We know what is going on. We know what you have done, what you are doing, and what you want to do.

You won't get away with it any more...

This plan is not a compromise between two plans, but a bastardization of both. It implements the taxes without getting rid of anything at all. The tax loopholes are still there (although they are less numerous, and who is to say they won't come back like last time?). The corrupt IRS still exists (upsetting the FairTax) and the graduated income tax gets more severe and even more punishing on corporations (upsetting both the FairTax and the Flat Tax).

The Flat Tax is a plan to eliminate tax breaks and loopholes from the tax system, and make the number of tax tiers a minimum (only two I believe, 17% and zero%). The plan is designed to be revenue neutral, and it is supposed to eliminate the corruption that goes on within the current tax system. The FairTax eliminates the entire current tax system (including the IRS), and replaces it with a National Retail Sales Tax (NRST) rebated up to poverty level spending for all American households. It is designed to eliminate the punishing tax structure of taxing corporations and "soaking the rich." It ends up being highly progressive because of the rebate, and it is also revenue neutral.

The problem here, is that both plans are now easily manipulated. There are loop holes in not only the income tax code, but in the sales tax code as well. This is not even close to either the Flat Tax or the FairTax. This is a plan to take your money from you in an even more discreet and secretive way than before. Sen Wyden wants control of your money and to tell you what to do with it. To him, all money earned is property of the government, and what they don't take in taxes is what they are giving you as a gift. Thus comes the idea that tax-breaks that are across the board are really just "gifts" to the rich because they benefit more from it. They get to keep more total money because the percentage is of a higher amount.

I am not going to get into tax-breaks, and graduated income tax brackets, and deductions, etc. I am going to say that this is a Senator playing politics and waging class warfare. He is creating tensions between the classes and using that tension to stir hatred, a sense of competition and urgency. He wants to get our blood boiling and he wants us to vote for him to make sure those rich bastards don't take more than they deserve of the giant American (economic) Pie. He wants those of us who do not have as much as Bill Gates to think that he is stealing it from us, and that because he has so much, we don't have enough. It is his fault we don't have enough money to buy those rims for our new car, or that its his fault that we can't get that extra media package on our cell phone. He wants us to believe it is Sam Walton's fault that we couldn't quite afford to get the house with the second study, or that its his fault that the man begging on the side of the street lost his job.

I say enough is enough. It is time to take that power out of the hands of the politicians and put it back into our hands. They have manipulated our vote for far too long, and we have bought into their lies and deceit one too many times. It is time for change. It is time to get rid of the income tax and the IRS. It is time to let how you live, rather than the government, determine how much you pay in taxes. If you live richly, and way beyond your means, you will pay a higher percentage in effective taxes. If you only buy new what you need new, and buy everything else second-hand or make it yourself, you will pay virtually no taxes. If you invest or save your money on things that will bring a return, you will pay no taxes on that. Things like expensive cars and grills will lose some of their appeal to those who know how to handle their money. They will realize they can make more money with the money they have, rather than imply spend it.

America is ready for the FairTax.

America rejects the "Fair Flat Tax."

America demands Fair Taxation Now!

Introductions...

I am a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

I am studying Industrial Engineering (not for long I think), and I am a supporter of the FairTax.

I first heard about the FairTax (heretofore known as FT) while listening to 97.3 The Sky [www.thesky973.com] , a local talk radio station. The talk show host who was talking about it was Neal Boortz [www.boortz.com]. He says that he had supported the idea of a national retail-sales tax (NRST) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax]. To replace the current tax code for over twenty years, and recently he had begun learning specifically about the FT from Rep. John Linder (R-GA) [http://linder.house.gov/], the author of the FairTax Bill, HR 25.

The FT, to him, was the most reasonable plan in motion that would help our country escape from the current punishing income tax, and replace it with a workable NRST. I began to do a little research and became interested, but the concept was still beyond me, and I lost interest.

Then Neal announced that he was going to release a book with John Linder entitled the FairTax Book. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060875410/002-8285521-8840858?v=glance&n=283155] I waited for weeks until the book was finally released. I went to purchase the book on the day it came out, but every book store in town was sold out. Neal Boortz came to Gainesville that week to a book store for a book signing, and I did not arrive in time to get a book, but I did get a book plate signed.

I then finally found a book in a book store in Jacksonville, and I read it in a few days. I ate it up!

The whole concept was amazing, and from that day forward I became a supporter.


I didn't start getting involved in any kind of activism, however, until a few months ago. I joined a forum [www.fairtaxgroups.com], and the support and energy I witnessed on that site immediately drove me to join the local Gainesville group. I am now in charge, along with my female friend AA (these are her initials, her name will not be mentioned until she gives me permission to use it), of the local events subcommittee. We work to find events in the surrounding area where the group could promote the FT.

I am now starting this blog to talk about my efforts specifically. I want to describe the different types of people I communicate with about the FT and their reactions. I want to post my own rebuttals to anti-FT articles that I come across. I want to be a resource to whomever needs information on the FT.

I am also going to be starting an official group on the University of Florida campus. I will be documenting my efforts to do this, and the responses I get from individuals on the college campus.


Until next time!
FairTax Gator

About my blog...

This blog is going to be about my personal experiences on the road to getting the FairTax passed. I will be posting links to articles I read about the FairTax, quoting good parts and bad parts, adding to good points, expounding on better ones, and refuting bad information.

People I run into and discuss the FairTax will be included here as well. I will only post their names if they give me permission to, otherwise they will be known by their initials or descriptions (blonde female student, short curly-haired professor, etc).

I am writing this blog for many purposes. To track my view of the FairTax, and see if it changes over time. To see the reactions of the general public over time (the written word has a longer memory than does the mind). To be able to reference my responses to certain complaints and/or questions about the FairTax. It may even get to the point where others can use it for their own benefit.

This blog may have five viewers, it may have twenty, or it may have twenty-thousand. I do not know, and the size of my audience is not my main concern. I want to use this blog to help move the FairTax forward, and if that means using it to get the word out to many people, so be it. If it means simply using it as a personal reference, then that is fine too. I just want to do all I can to get HR 25 passed as quickly as possible.

I will try to make this blog as simple and easy to follow as possible. I will be looking for ways to update it with searches and categories. I will be scouring the web, looking for blogs and websites with good ideas that I can incorporate into my page. If you have suggestions specifically for my page, I think I will have a separate section to put those comments.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy FairTax at UF.